1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for measuring the concentration of a component in blood and a control method of the device, and in particular, to a device for measuring the concentration of a component in blood using perspiration and a control method of the device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In predetermined diseases such as diabetes, the glucose concentration (hereinafter referred to as blood glucose level) in the blood needs to be measured many times a day. A method of measuring the concentration of a component in the blood such as blood glucose includes a method of analyzing and measuring the collected blood, but because such a method imposes a great burden on the patient, a method that does not involve collecting of blood has been proposed.
A method of measuring the concentration of a component in blood such as blood glucose from the concentration of the component contained in the perspiration is known as the method of measuring without collecting the blood. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 5,036,861 discloses a method and a device therefor.
In the method disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,036,861, a medical agent is introduced to the measurement site to forcibly cause perspiration, and the perspiration is collected and analyzed to obtain the concentration of the component in the blood. The introduction of the medical agent is a method of subcutaneously impregnating the medical agent to act on the perspiratory gland by attaching to the skin of the patient a patch with a liquid containing a perspiration accelerator, and flowing current to the skin through the patch. In the method of U.S. Pat. No. 5,036,861, the perspiration is absorbed with an absorption pad on the patch after introducing the medical agent to the skin.
However, if the perspiration is collected with the above method, the liquid containing the perspiration accelerator is also absorbed by the absorption pad, and hence there is a problem in that the concentration of the target component in the collected perspiration maybe diluted or false detection may easily occur when detecting the concentration by the sensor.
To solve the above problem, there is proposed a method of once detaching the patch including the liquid containing the perspiration accelerator and cleaning the skin after perspiration, and attaching a pad for collecting perspiration to collect the perspiration. In this case, however, there is a problem in that the perspiration may not be efficiently collected if the position where the patch is attached and the position where the pad is attached are shifted.